


The After (Watanuki) Life

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Series: The Destined Duo Saga [17]
Category: xxxHoLic
Genre: Afterlife, Canon Compliant, Gen, Oh they all worry about Kimihiro-kun so much, Post-Doumeki's death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 12:11:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4434980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haruka and Shizuka meet up in the afterlife.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The After (Watanuki) Life

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted one of these, yeah. Never can have too much Haruka in my life, and Shizuka, too.
> 
> I do not own _xxxHolic_. Thanks for reading~

Haruka was waiting.

He removed the cigarette from between his lips patiently, and stared into the endless void surrounding him. There were no dreams here, and there was no imagination. Not in the world between world, that tenuous, meticulous segway between Life and Death. Here, there was nothing.

Haruka was waiting, and he didn't have to wait long. There were footsteps behind him, soft from afar and louder as they grew closer, and he extinguished the cigarette between his fingers before turning around.

"Shizuka," he greeted, and looked down at his grandson.

Shizuka looked exactly the way that Haruka did. This wasn't a dream, nor was it reality, but they both appeared at nearly the same age, when, in reality, they were lifetimes older.

"Grandfather," Shizuka said slowly, and he looked around the void around them briefly before his eyes slid back to Haruka. This time, he was looking at him, inspecting silently, and only the slightest flickering of his eyes giving away his interest. As emotionless as always, Kimihiro would say, and Haruka had to smother a sorrowful laugh.

"I can't say that I'm happy to meet, given the circumstances, but I am glad to speak with you once again, my grandson."

Shizuka nodded slightly, and then looked around the void again. "What am I doing here?"

Haruka hummed. "I'm meant to be the one asking you that, Shizuka."

Shizuka's eyes slid back to him. "What do you mean?"

Shizuka really was a handful, and Haruka wondered if he perhaps he'd gotten some of it from him. Shizuka's father hadn't ever really been what Haruka would deem a handful. Perhaps it just had to do with company, and tasks, in the waking world. "You're meant to be moving on, Shizuka."

Shizuka's eyes narrowed slightly. He was as stubborn as an ox, and again Haruka had to resist the urge to smile. He was very proud of his grandson, although it wasn't something he had ever talked about. "What do you mean?" Shizuka asked, although the way his fingers clenched into fists at his side spoke volumes that he knew.

Haruka smiled sadly. "You cannot go back."

"But, spirits..."

"You do not want to become a ghost, Shizuka," Haruka interrupted. "One day, you would end up hurting the ones that you loved."

Shizuka's lips pressed into a thin line. Haruka could see the validity of that statement working through his grandson's head. For he had been the most stubborn of all of Kimihiro's mortal acquaintances, and there was only one person on the earth whom Shizuka cared deeply enough for to do anything to protect him.

"What about dreams?" Shizuka asked shortly, when his first plan of attack had fallen through.

Haruka shook his head sadly. "You are not a dreamwalker, Shizuka. That is why you have not been able to reach Kimihiro-kun before now."

Shizuka's lips turned down in the slightest display of unhappiness, and he was silent. The longer the silence went on, the more transparent Shizuka became, and Haruka was beginning to see a full-fledged - and barely contained - panic in his grandson's eyes before he spoke again.

"Then..." Shizuka said slowly, eyebrows furrowed, "what am I supposed to do?"

Dedicated to a fault. Haruka smiled to himself, and reached over to pat Shizuka on the head, not intending to be condescending even if he was sure that it came off as such. It had been a very long time since he had been able to do that, a lifetime ago when he had still been alive, and Shizuka had been very small.

"You move on," he said softly.

"I can't do that."

Haruka laughed quietly. "It's no wonder that Kimihiro-kun often got annoyed at you. You and him are strikingly similar." They were both loyal, dedicated, and stubborn, to a fault, even. Kimihiro tried to do for everyone, and Shizuka tried to do for Kimihiro. It was no wonder that Kimihiro and him had butt heads, so to speak. And the face that Kimihiro would pull if Haruka ever said that they were similar! The thought could put a permanent smile on Haruka's face.

Shizuka stared at him, unamused.

Haruka sighed. "Grandson, Kimihiro-kun has accepted his destiny. You have done your part. It is time to rest."

"And what if..." Shizuka trailed off, eyebrows furrowing.

"‘What ifs’ do not get us very far in life." Haruka paused. "Although I suppose that is circumstantial at best, now."

"What if I haven't accepted it?" Shizuka asked slowly.

Haruka tilted his head.

"Accepted his destiny," Shizuka continued. "Accepted mine."

Haruka leaned back against nothingness, and rest his head on his hand. "If you had a hundred more years, would you accept it, then?" He knew the answer already, and so did Shizuka, and that was the reason that his grandson stayed so resolutely silent. Haruka circled back to an earlier point. "Your death was very hard on Kimihiro-kun, even if he would never say. Do you want to hurt him further?"

This time, Shizuka spoke immediately. "No."

"You have your answer." He glanced over his shoulder, where the inklings of a dreamscape was beginning to form. He was sure that he was the only one who could see it, although he did not know yet who it belonged to. "Sayaka will take care of Kimihiro-kun."

Shizuka seemed to slump slightly, curling into himself only the tiniest amount. He looked dejected. "I know." He looked at Haruka critically. "You'll see him, too?"

"Yes." Haruka nodded. That dreamscape in the distance could just as easily be Kimihiro now, although telling Shizuka that would send the boy blindly trying to find his way into it. And that was not where Shizuka needed to be right now. "I'll watch over him as always."

"... Okay." Shizuka closed his eyes briefly, and then reopened them to meet his gaze. There was an age of hurt in his eyes, although he was doing his best to hide it. "Where do I go?" he asked plainly.

Haruka didn't need to answer the question; his grandson accepting his fate and moving on to the other world was the key to unlocking that bridge between worlds. He watched Doumeki's eyes track what was invisible to Haruka, and he knew that he had found what he was looking for.

"He'll grant your wish one day, Shizuka."

Shizuka glanced over his shoulder. He didn't say anything, just looked at him curiously.

"You'll see him again."

"... Yeah. I'll be waiting. Tell him."

Haruka nodded. "I will." _When it's time._

Shizuka nodded, too, and turned back around.

"Shizuka?"

"Yeah?"

Haruka smiled. "It's good to see you again."

Shizuka almost smiled, maybe. "You, too." Or maybe he was smiling at whatever he could envision in the future beyond now. Haruka didn't know, but it was a start, he imagined.

Haruka watched with a small sense of meloncholy as Shizuka continued walking, and soon vanished into the darkness. That was a luxury that Haruka did not have, and did not want. He was fine where he was, and this was where he was meant to be. This was _his_ destiny, and he had accepted it.

Haruka hummed and fished his lighter out of his pocket, heading towards the nearby dreamscape.

 


End file.
